Acer criticises AMD's XGP technology

But AMD still expecting an Acer Radeon XGP Unit

Acer has told TechRadar that it does not feel AMD's XGP external graphics project offers a good enough user experience, although it remains interested in the product.

Somewhat strangely, Acer was expected to release a branded ATI Radeon external graphics card to take advantage of XGP this year, but that appears to have been put on the backburner.

XGP was AMD's attempts to offer laptops users with an external discrete graphics cards, meaning that users could offer a massive graphical boost to their laptops when power was less of an issue.

AMD VP Leslie Sobon told TechRadar a few weeks ago: "Acer will be coming out with an external Radeon graphics card and when you plug that in you get discrete capability, we're really excited about it.

"I don't know If Acer has announced when it's coming out, I don't know myself, but it's coming out this year where they will have this XGP solution..."

Not the best

However, in response to TechRadar's probings about a release date Acer responded with a less than flattering description of XGP, even though it has already used the port part of the technology in its Ferrari laptop.

"Acer is interested in this solution, but at the moment it doesn't offer the best user experience," said a spokesman for the company.

Now obviously, TechRadar contacted AMD to get to the bottom of this, and the company responded by saying: "AMD has been working closely with Acer to bring XGP to market.

"The Acer Ferrari One, now available for purchase, does include the XGP port. AMD demonstrated a prototype solution with this notebook at International CES 2010 in Las Vegas at the beginning of this year.

"A shipping date for the XGP unit has not been announced."

Curiouser, and curiouser.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Global Editor-in-Chief

Patrick (Twitter) is Global Editor-in-Chief for techradar, and has been with the site since its launch in 2008. He is a longstanding judge of the T3 Awards, been quoted or seen on everything from the The Sun to Sky News and is on the #CoolBrands Council. He started his career in football, making him one of approximately one journalists to have covered both a World Cup final and an iPhone launch.